Every Girl Has One
by Ramen Is Yummy
Summary: The pink-haired kunoichi rested the dark glasses on the bridge of her nose, eyes hidden and face serious as she announced, "You will be my gay friend." In which Sakura is suddenly cool, Naruto is jealous, and Sasuke realizes he doesn't actually hate everything. One-shot. SasuSaku friendship, NaruSasu.


"I am _never_ going to forgive you for this," Uchiha Sasuke hissed, his breath flooding through the straw in front of him and becoming a part of the smoothie at the other end. Haruno Sakura sipped on his fury through the second straw in the delightful drink.

The two Team Kakashi members were currently having a "friendly" lunch date at a new cafe Sakura loved to indulge in from time to time, though if you asked Sasuke he'd say that she was _obsessed_ and that 90% of the cafe's funds came out of her little skirt pockets.

She wasn't wearing the usual skirt today, Sasuke noted, but instead was wearing a pale, seafoam green sun dress that complimented her eyes and pink hair. She probably wanted to look nice for their "date", but Sasuke didn't particularly care about what kind of clothes they'd wear on such an occasion.

"This summer weather has been just wonderful," Sakura sighed dreamily, completely ignoring Sasuke being his usual diva self.

"Sasuke-kun, please share this smoothie with me. You're not being a very good date."

Sasuke stared at her with a blank expression.

"It's made fresh and is extremely healthy. Not even that sweet, either. I made sure to get a slightly bitter flavor." The raven moved forward a few centimeters and gave the smoothie a curt sip that satisfied neither of the table's occupants. Sakura rolled her eyes and went to drink the rest of the shake, but Sasuke beat her to it and gulped it down - because he was thirsty, not for petty revenge, no.

She smirked and leaned her forearm on the table while examining her nails, "Our Naruto sure has grown up to be a nice piece of ass, huh?"

Sasuke promptly spat out his drink. Sakura easily dodged the disaster and jumped right back into what she was talking about.

"I think I'm gonna go for it," she continued casually.

Sasuke coughed.

"Yeah," Sakura nodded to herself, bringing her hand away to inspect her nails from a distance. She then proceeded to buff them on the front of her shirt. "I've been thinking about getting someone on the side. He likes me still, I'm sure. I could just-"

Sasuke slammed his hands on the table, "What-"

"I know your secret, Sasuke-_kun_." That one phrase stopped all movement from the Uchiha. There was a staring contest between the two, light and dark eyes locking intensely in a heated gaze that left nearby customers sweating and feeling uncomfortable without really knowing why.

When it became very clear that the conversation wasn't going to move forward unless he said something, Sasuke narrowed his eyes and demanded further explanation, "What do you want?" He asked slowly. Sakura smirked, something she rarely did outside of battle before Sasuke came back to the village (some would say she picked it up from the Uchiha himself).

When her hands reached for the pair of sunglasses perched on top of her head, Sasuke knew that things were going from strange and slightly confusing, to dreadful and possibly mentally damaging.

Aside from the habit of smirking, Sakura had also gotten this new trait of always having a pair of sunglasses on her when she wasn't out on a mission. Whenever she meant business she would slip them on before delivering her verbal attack. And everyone just assumed she picked up some weird and amusing quirks from dating Rock Lee and joining in on his shennanigans - and, admittedly, Sasuke supposed the whole bit about putting her glasses on to dramaticize her one-liners might've come from that - but Sasuke and the rest of Team Kakashi knew she actually always had sunglasses because she was truly Tsunade's student and, as such, was usually hung over.

The pink-haired kunoichi rested the dark glasses on the bridge of her nose, eyes hidden and face serious as she announced, "You will be my gay friend."

Sasuke's posture slackened. Forgetting for a second that he was from a genetically superior and corrupted clan, he stared at his teammate with a look that resembled a toddler being told 'no' for the first time and not understanding what it meant.

"...What-"

"A lot of girls have that one 'gay friend'!" Sakura began explaining herself excitedly. Sasuke was not happy about being interrupted twice. Her sunglasses came off in one fluid motion as she began making wide hand gestures to express her enthusiasm, "They go shopping together, and do beauty stuff, and eat lunch and talk about boys and sex and love and-" Sasuke interrupted her gushing.

"Don't girls already do that together?" He was genuinely confused as to why she brought this up, "Why does it have to be a guy - particularly a gay one? Who says I'm gay, anyways?"

There was silence as Sakura stared at him with no expression.

"Anyways," she perked up again, "I'm really excited about this! I have to go help Tsunade-shishou with her work, so we'll meet up tomorrow around the same time and go to the shopping center, okay? Love ya!" Sakura waved cutely as she got up from her seat. Sasuke followed suit and stared incredulously.

"Wait a minute, don't you have Ino - Hina- _why_ me? What makes you think I'll go along with this? Do you actually believe I suddenly want to be a _gay friend_?" Sasuke wasn't even sure if that was a real thing. Sakura put her glasses on top of her head again as she turned to face her teammate with an innocent expression.

"But, Sasuke-kun, you _have_ to."

"Why should I?"

"Because-" Her eyes suddenly snapped to the left, catching an orange figure walking past the shop window. "Oh, Naruto!" She called in a sing-song voice, tapping the glass harshly so as to catch the blond's attention.

Turning to look at the noise, Naruto was pleasantly surprised to find his best friends inside the passing building. He had been hoping to run into just them when they found him instead. Wonderful! Naruto gave a big and contagious smile, so brilliant and enthusiastic that it had Sakura giggling and Sasuke staring dazedly for a second before realizing what the girl was doing and promptly tackling her to the floor. Sakura screamed and Naruto's smile disappeared as he quickly made his way into the shop.

"You wouldn't dare," Sasuke hissed while on top of the kunoichi. Sakura smirked at her attacker.

"Come shopping with me tomorrow _or else_. Be my gay friend _or else._" Sasuke knew she wasn't bluffing. If he didn't frolic around and pick daisies with Sakura, she was really going to tell Naruto all about his... below-standard infatuation. He stared down at his supposed teammate that he now realized was _blackmailing_ him. She smiled brightly.

Naruto made it into the shop and brought his palm to his own face, blushing and refusing to look at his best friends. "Um," he managed to get out, for once trying not to cause an even bigger scene, seeing as everyone in the cafe was staring. His teammates quickly became very aware of the situation and Sasuke sat back onto the floor, Sakura following suit and hugging him enthusiastically.

"Aww, Sasuke-kun's just upset I'm leaving!" she gushed obnoxiously (_on purpose_, Sasuke thought darkly), "Don't worry, we said we'd meet up tomorrow again, right?" She tapped her finger on the tip of his nose and it took Sasuke every fiber of his being to sit there and just take it instead of ripping her finger off, "I'll see you later!" And then she did it.

She did the thing that Sasuke never wanted her to do, ever.

But she did it.

And she did it right in front of Naruto.

In public.

"Bye, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura swooped in and gave him a great, big smooch on the cheek. The small and dull smacking sound of her soft, pink lips pressing together against his porcelain skin seemed to echo like a vicious whisper throughout the silent cafe.

Naruto let out a surprised sound that reminded Sasuke of a squawking chicken. Sakura excitedly hopped up from the floor and turned to give Naruto a bone crushing hug, telling him about her duty to Tsunade while Sasuke slowly got up and tried to pick up the shattered pieces of his pride.

"Bye, Naruto!" And then she was gone and things still weren't better.

Sasuke turned to the blond, daring him to say a word on the subject of what just occurred. Through their silent communication, they both directed each other out of the shop and downtown, passing shops and booths and food stands. Naruto bought them dumplings and they ate as they made their way towards the park, where they promptly sat under a tree and talked until they fell asleep.

* * *

Sakura had dragged Sasuke to a clothing store he didn't even bother to remember the name of, the inside of it stuffed with so many racks of designer apparel it was nearly impossible to walk around. He tried to enjoy the feeling of the fabrics brushing against his skin as he followed his new 'girlfriend' down the aisles, but he was overwhelmed by how much he didn't want to be there. He would much rather be sparring - or eating, for that matter.

Sasuke was hungry, but apparently clothes came first. He wished Naruto was suffering this instead of him. He wished _Sai_ was suffering this instead of him. And wasn't Lee Sakura's boyfriend? Didn't boyfriends do this kind of thing too?

Sasuke imagined being dragged around by Naruto while he went shopping, but couldn't picture it perfectly. Because Naruto never _dragged_ Sasuke into shopping, they'd go _together_ \- and it wasn't called '_shopping_', it was called _'buying a few things'_ \- and they bought important things like _weapons_ and _winter clothes_ and _ramen_.

That's why he liked Naruto and not Sakura.

"Stop wallowing in self-pity, will you?" Sakura reprimanded him (UNJUSTLY), "I got a couple of things, so come watch me try them on!"

Why did he need to be here, anyway? Why should he watch her try on clothes? He was very sure that only Sakura could determine if her clothes fit the right way. What did his opinion matter? Sasuke said nothing as he followed her towards the back of the store where the dressing rooms were located.

As they made their way, a couple of girls stared and giggled shyly at him, though he wasn't exactly sure why. Normally he'd chalk it up to them being fangirls, but he was in a women's clothing store and Sakura had figured him out and so now anyone could figure him out and now he was panicking.

Sasuke sped up a bit and nearly molded himself into Sakura's back as they walked - not because he felt safe or even slightly better being near her! He just wanted to make it obvious that he was in the store only because he was with her.

Sakura sat the Uchiha down (he was getting progressively more and more pissed at constantly being treated like a child by her) on a bench just outside her stall before she locked herself inside with an impressive pile of clothing. Sasuke slumped in his seat and rested his elbows on his knees, surprised at how patient he was being. Of course, he was being blackmailed, but such a signifcant detail was constantly being forgotten throughout the day.

The pinkette came out of the stall, wearing a sundress that Sasuke didn't find appealing, but didn't find atrocious either. "What do you think, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura twirled in place before heading over to the corner where three mirrors stood to give her a full view. Sasuke looked away and grumbled, "It's whatever."

Sakura didn't miss a beat, "Yeah, it's okay, I guess. I'll see what else I have!" She practically skipped back into her stall to change into another outfit, and after a few more, Sakura was beginning to lose her enthusiasm. She came out in a pair of short leggings (similar to her mission leggings) that were a light pink along with a creme-colored tank top that loosely hung on her.

Sasuke didn't even give a response when she stood even directly in front of him, his nose only about a foot away from her stomach.

"You know what," she sounded deflated, "I don't think I'll find anything in this store. Let's just... go and get something to eat, then you can go home." Sakura turned to change back into her original outfit while Sasuke got up and made his way towards the front of the store.

Sighing, the pink-haired girl slipped back on her skirt and sleeveless shirt (she thought it would be cute if she and Sasuke matched a little) and then gathered the failed outfits in her arm.

Unlocking the stall door, she was shocked when, instead of getting out, she was shoved back in by Sasuke and his sharingan eyes. He was walking forward into her, the massive amounts of clothes she held becoming a protective barrier between them. Sasuke was holding a single green dress, simple and summery, tight on the top and flowy from the waist, down. She loved it already.

Sakura looked up at Sasuke and he deactivated his sharingan, staring intensely and daring her to say something. Slowly, a smile stretched across her face and she shoved the pile of unwanted clothing at Sasuke before snatching up the green dress. She turned away from him and began to pull her shirt over her head as he quickly scrambled out of the booth to get rid of the cloth in his hands (and to avoid seeing Sakura naked).

A few minutes later, she exited the booth and twirled in place, but Sasuke wasn't there. She stopped and looked around, suddenly nervous that he had given her the dress just to placate her.

"Sasuke-kun..?"

Sasuke's head popped out from behind a rack of clothing. "Yeah?" He called out. Sakura's whole world suddenly brightened.

"I love it! What do you think?" She twirled again and again.

"Hn." Sasuke gave a curt nod before coming out from the racks with a few more articles of clothing. Sakura ran up to him and looked through his choices, loving every single shirt, skirt and dress. When bringing them into her arms, Sasuke started looking at the price tags.

"These are expensive." Sakura examined them herself and deflated. Even though she had been taking more difficult missions and getting extra money being Tsunade's second assistant, she couldn't afford to spend so much. She was about to throw her hands up in defeat, when Sasuke suddenly said something that made her freeze in place.

"We'll have to go to another store," he said without missing a beat. Sakura blinked in surprise.

"...Really?"

Sasuke looked at her as if she was stupid, "Unless you want to pay this much for all of these clothes." The pinkette's smile was blinding.

* * *

"You see, Sasuke-kun," Sakura lounged on her beach towel, the breeze blowing and carrying the sound of the waves crashing on the sand, "life needs to be lived every single day. You can't just train and that's it," she made a circular hand motion, "You can train and then go out and see sights and meet people."

"And who have we met today?"

"We met the Sasuke in here," Sakura poked his nipple.

"Nipplesuke?"

"Yes, Nipplesuke. Now, if you would kindly hand me another beer."

"Is there a point to this?" Sasuke, having no morals, reached into the cooler to keep feeding his drunk friend more alcohol. He opened a bottle of his own as he waited for Sakura to come up with a brilliant answer. The pinkette made a wild gesture towards her own body. She was currently wearing a pale green bikini with white flowers decorating the top.

"This bathing suit, of course," she gestured to Sasuke's black trunks that also had white flowers along the right leg, "And your bathing suit." She was saying this as if it was obvious and Sasuke was in idiot for not remembering their successful shopping trip.

The bathing suits were the last items they purchased after visiting several stores. Sasuke learned that shopping with Sakura could easily become a guilty pleasure of his. The young kunoichi decided that they were going to spend the rest of the day at the beach drinking beer and tanning.

Uchiha Sasuke did not tan. He also knew that Haruno Sakura did not tan either. They burned.

Together they sat in the summer heat, the sun showing no mercy on their deliciously creamy skin. Sunblock was applied every hour or so, but the more they consumed alochol, the more sloppy they got. At one point Sasuke covered the palm of his hand in lotion and then smacked Sakura's abs.

"Live life, Sasuke-kun. Soak up the sun," Sakura put her sunglasses on and gave him a thumbs up, "This is the time of our youth."

"I cannot believe you just said that." Sasuke layed down and tried to will the sun's rays off of his face. He was feeling tipsy and he began to wonder just how many beers he really had. Did they ever stop to eat somewhere? He couldn't remember. Being a gay friend was tiring.

Sasuke wondered if Sakura blackmailing him into such close friendship was supposed to mean something. Did it mean he needed to treat her better? He didn't dwell too long on the subject. He took another swig of his beer. _Delicious_. Were they allowed to drink beer at this beach?

"Hey, Sakura-"

"SAKURA-SANNNNNN!" Sakura sprang up like a vampire from a coffin and turned to look by the shore before jumping into the air and running down towards the ocean.

"LEE-SANNNNNNNN!" She cheered and jumped into his arms before screaming about him being wet and attempting to scramble away. The two of them finished their moment and returned to the towels where Sasuke was now chugging his beer knowing he was going to be in the presence of Sakura's energetic boyfriend.

"Sasuke-kun, it's nice to see you enjoying a youthful activity such as this instead of locking yourself away from the world," his presence was too abrupt and Sasuke wanted to leave. Did being a gay friend mean he had to be a third wheel? Sasuke nodded at Lee and he made room as Sakura scooted so that she was seated on the towels between the two boys.

"Sasuke-kun, have you asked Naruto out as of yet?"

"Lee," he deadpanned.

"Lee! I haven't gotten around to making a solid plan yet!" Sasuke raised an eyebrow. The two of them were plotting behind his back? He didn't like that. And about him and Naruto? Even worse. He wanted to just live his life with Naruto's friendship and for everyone to leave him alone.

There were a lot of things Uchiha Sasuke disliked, and he didn't really like anything, and he needed people to understand that.

"Sakura, I think today was enough. I don't want this anymore."

"No," she sat up straight in her seat on the towel, "If you back out now, I'll tell Naruto everything." Sasuke didn't understand. Sakura was threatening to spill Sasuke's hideous secret, yet it was so plainly obvious she was scheming so that he and Naruto could get together.

"What's the point of this?"

Sakura put her sunglasses back on and simply gestured to her new bathing suit, then to Sasuke's.

* * *

Sasuke tried to think of what he might've done in a past life to warrant the life he lived so far; to warrant his family being slaughtered by the one he admired most; to warrant seperating from his best friend and betraying his new family for the sake of blind revenge; to warrant killing his only brother in a fit of rage, only to find out that he was loved and protected by him from the very beginning; to warrant his sanity spiraling into oblivion as he lost his purpose; to warrant Sakura dragging him into a nail salon.

For the past two weeks, the young Uchiha had been training his patience with his pink-haired companion. Apparently girls had a lot more small and unimportant things to do daily than guys did, and it was difficult even for a prodigy such as himself to keep up with.

There were a lot of unspoken rules - which, guys had those too, but not nearly as many - that Sasuke needed to constantly follow: he needed to talk to Sakura on the phone every day despite the fact that they hung out constantly; he had to acknowledge his girlfriends' appearances upon greeting ("I love your shirt!" or "I love what you did with your hair!" or "You look really pretty today - I mean, you always look pretty, but you look prettier than usual!"); if he didn't let his girlfriends' (Sakura, Ino, Tenten, Karin and Hinata) know a boy was looking at them or if a boy liked them, then it was considered disloyal; whenever one of his girls put themselves down, he had to shower them with compliments ("What are you talking about? You're skinny!" or "Your butt may be small, but it's perky. That's what guys like!" or "You can't even tell one's smaller than the other!").

"In the end, we're all human"? Sasuke wanted to punch Naruto in the face for ever uttering such bullshit. Male and females were very separate. Physical differences aside, there were a lot of mental and social differences that had Sasuke nearly keeling over in confusion and instantaneous death.

"Sasuke-kun, you'll like this! I can't believe you've never gotten a pedicure before!" Sakura was currently shoving a brooding Sasuke, whose only form of resistance was to become a stiff plank of weight while digging his heels into the ground.

"There's never been a need. I'm a shinobi, why should I soften my feet?"

"Because," Sakura grounded out between her teeth as she gave a particularly hard push, "Guys like soft feet!"

"Where did you hear such non-"

"It's true!"

"I'm sure only a small handful of individuals actually have foot fetishes."

"No, Sasuke-kun, you're missing the point!" Sakura stopped and wrapped her arms around Sasuke under his armpits, nestling herself into his back. "Getting past that initial feeling of disgust and braving just a small touch of someone else's foot is a big step. And so he touches your foot and he's expecting to think 'hey, that wasn't so bad' - but then he notices 'oh wow, it's _so soft_'. He wasn't ready for that one. Now he's thinking, 'If just their_ foot_ is this soft...'" She trailed off as she began rubbing circles on Sasuke's torso through his shirt, ".. I wonder how the rest feels'."

Despite having blushed during Sakura's presuasion, the raven rolled his eyes and almost laughed at the ridiculous logic the kunoichi was using. Was this really how girls thought? Did they sit around thinking about these kinds of things?

"Do you hear yourself-" Sasuke's insult was interrupted by the chime of the salon bell as he was shoved unceremoniously through the entrance. Everyone within froze. They weren't sure if they were seeing right. The last Uchiha was currently standing in their salon with Tsunade-sama's star pupil.

And just as quickly as they had stopped, the workers and customers moved on and continued what they had previously been doing. Sasuke took a moment to appreciate no longer being the center of attention and being dismissed so easily.

Sasuke was sitting in a comfortable chair beside Sakura, his bare feet on the foot rest waiting to be molested by a professional. He was tense, not liking the idea of someone rubbing his feet so intimately. "But why the feet? Can't the same thought process - that you girls so magically put together - work the same with hands?" Sasuke picked some dirt out from under his nail as he said this, taking note of the hardness of the skin where the callouses had taken over.

"Then do you want a manicure?"

"This seat is comfortable," Sasuke leaned back and ignored Sakura's infuriating enthusiasm and the feigned innocence in her response.

He looked around in agitation, suddenly very nervous. He was expected to just sit back and relax when a complete stranger was going to be massaging and pampering his feet like a god. He may be an Uchiha, but he wasn't filled with the belief that everyone should treat him like a prince. The villagers used to do that on their own, and Sasuke was somewhat glad for the complete 180 they pulled when he came back.

What if the massager did it the wrong way on purpose, just because he was the village's traitor? Now Sasuke was suddenly nervous for a completely different reason.

Upon hearing shy, but polite, greetings from two young women, there was an immediate grab for his feet. Sasuke's reflexes kicked in and he kicked out, nearly breaking his server's nose (if she hadn't been so used to working with ninjas, she wouldn't have been able to dodge so well).

"Sasuke!" Sakura admonished without honorifics. She wasn't so surprised. Nobody liked Sasuke the way they used to, so if a touch wasn't coming from his teammate or close friend, it was most likely an attack.

Not showing any emotion on his face, Sasuke once more relaxed against the comfortable chair and watched the massager with feigned nonchalance, as if he always came to get a pedicure. His eyes revealed slightly that he was still feeling weary, but nobody but Naruto would actually be able to tell, and so Sakura smiled warmly at him as the procedure began.

Trying not to kick his attendent for the sixth time (he couldn't get used to how much it _tickled_), Sasuke sat and contemplated the evening's future events: Sakura was going to sleep over his house.

It was going to sort of be like his official initiation ceremony into the 'gay friend' position. His first ever (and hopefully _only_)girls' slumber party. He wasn't sure if he was comfortable with that. Sure, he'd had sex with women, had slept beside Karin or Sakura during his genin and defect years, and also slept next to teammates on his ANBU assignments. He even had to sleep naked with a female teammate on a mission where they had gotten lost in the wintery tundra of Iron Country.

But to sleep with a _friend_ \- and _willingly_, not out of necessity - was such a foreign subject to him.

The only person to ever stay at his apartment is Naruto, and Sasuke only had one bedroom. They usually shared a bed - not out of desire, but rather a comfortableness that had always been between the two. It was no different than sharing a bed on missions as genin, or sharing a bed as chuunin and jounin - sharing as comrades, their sleeping forms against each other back-to-back, or with Naruto curled into Sasuke's back. Sasuke hated the latter position because he would have a hard time sleeping, too preoccupied with worry over Naruto's exposure.

Should he do something similar with Sakura? Should they sleep back-to-back, or was that not friendly enough between a man and a woman? Should he cuddle her instead? Sasuke didn't think he could do something like that with someone he had no romantic feelings for. Hell, even cuddling someone he found attractive was rather embarrassing and overheating.

Sasuke was rather nervous and confused (though he would never admit that, ever). Two weeks into this whole 'gay friend' business and he _still_ wasn't sure how girls worked exactly and how he was supposed to act kind of like one too.

He didn't want to mess things up, and the reason for that was starting to become unidentifiable. How'd he get into this mess again? Pressure? Blackmail? It was something like that; he'd think about it later.

"Sasuke!" a familiar voice shouted as he just barely dodged a punch aimed for his face. So deep in his thoughts, the young Uchiha hadn't noticed the big transition from nail salon to training grounds.

He was currently sparring with Naruto, both of them sweaty and covered in grime from an intense fight, their clothes damp and uncomfortable and sandals feeling a little too tight from swelling. "Pay attention to me!"

Bouncing back from such an ucharacteristic display of distractedness, Sasuke swiftly swept Naruto off his feet and onto the ground. The blond disappeared into a cloud of dust, revealing that he was only a clone. Another kage bunshin came charging at him from behind, and another from nine o'clock and from four o'clock.

Sasuke quickly got rid of them before forming a chidori to counteract the rasengan that came suddenly out from the bunshin smoke. The two jutsus clashed intensely as usual, causing a whirlwind of destruction to break apart every piece of equipment in the general area. A series of metal and wood went flying in every direction, penetrating trees and the ground. A metal weight landed on Sasuke's foot, and as he tried to move away, he was stuck in place.

Under the protection of Susano'o, Sasuke lifted the weight off of his foot and gently lowered himself to sit on the ground as Naruto came to take shelter under the purple mass of chakra. Once the rain of blunt objects and sharp weapons stopped, Sasuke rid them of their shield and simply sat silently with his foot in great pain.

He didn't want to say anything and seem like a wuss for crying over a crushed foot. It seemed that no matter what the injury, pain was always new, and so every scratch and bruise hurt as if he'd never known pain before. That was normal for anyone, even a so highly trained ninja. It was the reaction that was important, the ability to ignore this awful sensation. He wasn't a crybaby.

That weight really crushed his foot.

Naruto stood and stretched, his shirt dark with sweat and his pants covered in dirt and some tree sap. "Let's go to that new onsen outside of town!" He demanded cheerfully. Nothing put him in a better mood than sparring with someone on the same level as him.

Sasuke said nothing as he lied back on the ground nonchalantly as if he wanted to take a nap right then and there. He put his arm behind his head and closed his eyes. "Teme! Don't ignore me!"

"Hn."

"Err!" Naruto grumbled and plopped himself on the ground before swiftly grabbing Sasuke's foot and ripping the sandal off. Sasuke nearly screamed from the pain that shot through him and just as swiftly sat up and tried to kick Naruto away.

"Wait, let me try something!"

"Let go of my foot, dumbass!"

"You bastard, I'm just trying to help!"

"I'm fine!"

"Like hell you are!"

"This might seem bad to a loser like you, but I'm perfectly - unnngh!" Sasuke groaned in agony as Naruto squeezed his foot. The blond's other hand went to his chest and he was gently pushed back down onto the ground.

He lied there and just let Naruto do what he wanted, figuring it would be beneficial in the end to have his foot feeling better. The blond looked at him warily, "Don't get scared, now." Sasuke snorted at such a thing.

Watching intently, the Uchiha's eyes zeroed in on Naruto's hands; they were glowing red from the intense amounts of Kurama's chakra that had gathered there.

Sasuke didn't even blink as Naruto reached for his foot, his complete trust showing through his relaxed posture. He flinched upon intial contact, the warmth spiking a small paranoia in his body that he would be burned, but then he collected himself once again and laid back.

Sasuke felt his bones shifting in his foot and it was very uncomfortable, not at all like the soothing heal of a medic nin's chakra. Once everything was put back in place, Naruto took his foot and massaged it a bit before stretching it forwards and then back.

"How's that feel?"

"Good."

"No uncomfortable strain in your leg?" Naruto pulled his leg forward until it was straight, and then tugged a little. Sasuke shook his head and then let out a long breath when Naruto brought his foot all the way back up to his head. Such flexibility would normally be very arousing to Sasuke's admirers, but Naruto didn't seem phased at all and let go of the leg, discreetly running his fingers along the material of Sasuke's pants as he did so before getting up and shouting out in victory.

"Yeah, I knew I could do it! I'm so cool!"

For once, Sasuke kept quiet and let Naruto have his moment of self-praise and accomplishment. He sat up again and moved to stand up once more, only to stop as Naruto plopped himself back onto the ground, grabbing Sasuke's foot and massaging it.

Slowly, the tension on the arch began to fade. The raven closed his eyes and let out a breathy moan, "That feels good." Naruto's grip tightened for a split second before going back to massaging slowly.

"R-Really?!" The loudness of his voice nearly made Sasuke cringe, his eyes still remaning closed and imagining what the blond idiot looked like.

He could see it: Naruto with his eyes wide and smile so nervous, but big anyway at the thought of being praised by his best friend. Naruto was always seeking Sasuke's approval. Sasuke really liked that; it made him feel important. And, secretly, Sasuke always sought Naruto's admiration, the awe in his voice when Sasuke did something cool or difficult, the sparkle in his eyes as he looked at Sasuke as if he were an ethereal being.

They were like brothers, a younger one and an older one dancing around each other, trying to outdo one another and yet really just wanting to shine in each other's lives in their own ways.

But Sasuke ruined it, because he didn't think of Naruto as only his brother anymore.

"You know, Sasuke," he nearly jumped at the sound of his voice, "your feet are really soft.." Naruto stopped massaging and reverted to simply molesting his foot. He let out a loud chuckle before playing with Sasuke's toes.

For some reason, it didn't tickle, but Sasuke tried to kick him anyway, as the appropriate action was called for in order to keep a sense of normalcy between the two. Naruto laughed again.

"How are they so soft?"

Sasuke scoffed, "I actually bathe, so -"

"Hey, hey!" Naruto interrupted loudly, getting riled up instantly, "I bathe every day! Sometimes I even shower three times a day! You probably only bathe once!" The blond lifted Sasuke's foot further and brought it to his face, "Your skin's just all _girly_ 'cause you _look_ girly!" Comment not appreciated. Sasuke sat up further and tried to whack Naruto on the head.

"Are you sniffing my foot, you idiot?!" Sasuke face tinged red at the thought. He didn't know if he found it attractive, hilarious or downright strange.

"Just seeing if you really were clean!"

"We just sparred!" Now he was suddenly embarrassed at the thought of his foot smelling bad when Naruto sniffed it.

"It's just salty," was Naruto's way of saying Sasuke's foot was perfect, like the rest of him, and he turned it to the side and bit into it playfully. The raven let out a strange noise that was a mix between a laugh and a groan of disapproval before whipping his arm around in an attempt to whack Naruto's head again.

"Usuratonkachi!" And the battle was on, another round of play that lacked the intensity of an actual spar, but held the rough excitement of a wrestling match between two friends.

At one point the blond had taken Sasuke's sandal and held it hostage above his own head as he was straddled. Sasuke pinned Naruto's legs between his and stubbornly reached towards the sandal, even though Naruto used the advantage of having two arms and kept pushing Sasuke back.

Naruto exclaimed a myriad of childish taunting while Sasuke tried to escape his current predicament. Either he moved up and let Naruto's legs loose, or he stay still and not be able to get his sandal back. He chose the latter, staying still and looking down at Naruto intimidatingly, but he knew the blond wouldn't back down. He and the rest of Team Kakashi were the only ones who didn't shrink away from the intensity of his glare.

Actually, now that he thought about it, Team Taka had stopped shying away from him recently as well. Sasuke sighed, his expression relaxing into one of acceptance. He had gotten way too soft.

Upon blinking, black met blue and their gaze was a bruise Sasuke couldn't help but poke. Lowering himself gently, he slowly brought his head down until it was half on the grass and half on Naruto's shoulder.

Next came his own shoulders and chest, resting slowly but surely onto Naruto's torso. Said blond encouraged the raven's affection and helped him the rest of the way, bringing his hands to the small of Sasuke's back and pushing down until they were flush together. They sat there breathing evenly in what appeared to be the most awkward hug to find a pair of friends in, but they were comfortable.

Sasuke lived for these moments. Their friendship was different than most others, they had a lot of past loneliness that was never acknowledged by anyone but each other, and so there were these moments where Sasuke and Naruto forgot about their bickering front and simply lied together in companionship.

They never felt guilty or embarrassed by their affection, so when the all too familiar sound of Lee screaming "YOUTH!" came from the entrance to the grounds, they didn't snap away from each other and act like nothing happened.

Naruto and Sasuke slowly sat up together before the latter got off of the blond's lap and stood, helping his friend up afterwards. They didn't know - nor did they care - if Lee, Kiba or Shino saw or not.

"Hey!" Kiba waved enthusiastically when he saw Naruto, but lost some of his excitement upon seeing the Uchiha.

The blond smiled and waved happily upon seeing the trio, already excited about the thought of all of them sparring together. Though tired and in dire need of a bath, he was never one to turn down friendly training with his friends.

"I should head home," Sasuke turned to leave so that he could get ready for the sleepover.

Naruto grabbed his hand, "Stay." At the sound of him so uncharacteristically quiet, Sasuke turned back around to get a good look at him. His posture, his eyes, his lips - the way his nostrils flared randomly and the way he swallowed his spit; Sasuke knew all of these aspects of Naruto by heart and vice versa. He could interpret anything wrong with the blond by simply looking at him, at his subtle body language.

Naruto was upset about their sudden lack of seeing each other. The raven felt guilty, knowingly hurting him because of Sakura's blackmail. He had no choice, he had to listen to whatever she said, to follow her even to the ends of the Earth for a sale on hair accessories if she so asked for it.

That reminded him, he had bought a hairpin for her that he thought she might like. He should give it to her at the sleepover.

"I have to go. Sakura's going to stay the night and I should be home when she gets there."

The words took some time to sink in. Now Naruto's body language gave off waves of annoyance and suppressed jealousy. Sasuke could imagine Naruto's thoughts: _Why is he spending so much time with Sakura-chan? Did I do something wrong? Is she more fun to be around? Am I that annoying? Is he avoiding me?_ But Sasuke knew Naruto wouldn't ask any of that. Instead, he would say something along the lines of -

"Is something going on between you and Sakura-chan?" Naruto made sure to keep his voice low so that the slowly-approaching Lee wouldn't hear.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Of course not, dobe. Even if I did like her, I wouldn't disrespect Lee like that. Don't be an idiot." Naruto furrowed his eyebrows.

"Well then why is she sleeping over?"

"Sakura's my friend, isn't she? You stay over my house as well, so I don't see anything wrong with her doing the same." Sasuke clipped professionally, as if he were explaining to a client a mission's details.

"Of course there's something wrong with it!" Naruto grabbed Sasuke's shirt and pulled. The Uchiha raised an eyebrow, as if Naruto's anger was not affecting him in the slightest. Rather, it appeared as if he was bored with it, like watching a child having a tantrum over candy.

Even if Sakura wasn't blackmailing him, there was nothing wrong with a harmless sleepover. As long as Lee approved, that is.

Naruto lived with a girl too - though Naruto and Karin were cousins, but that's hardly ever stopped anyone before. Sasuke moved to rip the blond's hand away from his shirt, when he muttered something that the raven didn't quite catch.

"What -"

"I said fight me!" Naruto yelled, shaking Sasuke a bit before shoving him a good foot away. Sasuke's brows disappeared into his bangs.

"Fight me! And if you win, you go have your little slumber party with Sakura-chan! But if I win," he thrusted his thumb towards himself and seemed to grow taller with how proud his posture was, "You cancel with her, and you stay with me for the rest of the night!"

Sasuke didn't even have time to respond before he had to dodge a rasengan to the face. He smirked, watching as Naruto failed to dispel the jutsu on time and broke through the Earth's surface with the ball of chakra.

The blond didn't let the mishap phase him. He immediately turned and threw kunai at Sasuke, who easily dodged before throwing some of his own in retaliation. This was child's play.

The Uchiha actually wanted to let Naruto win so that they could spend the rest of the night together, but that was impossible. Sakura would reveal him without hesitation - and Sasuke was never one to just let Naruto (or anyone, for that matter) beat him without a fight.

"_Chidori nagashi!_" He slammed his palm into the ground as electric currents flowed from his body, traveling in the direction of his blind affection. Naruto was shocked still until he disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Clone.

Several others came and attacked, and Sasuke watched for the real Naruto to appear. It was a common tactic the idiot shinobi used. He changed it well enough to catch others off guard, but with Sasuke it always remained the same.

The raven punched and kicked his way through the crowd of dobes until his fist was suddenly stopped rather harshly. The hand grappling him twist slightly to show that his wrist would be finished should he move even a single hair on his head.

Sasuke came face to face with Sage Naruto, his eyes yellowed and a blushing orange coating his eyelids. The raven took a few seconds to admire his face; the shape, the roughness of the barely visible stubble, the curve of his nose and sharpness of his teeth.

"_Chidori nagashi_," he shuddered. Naruto viciously let go of his wrist as an electric current crossed over and shocked him.

Regaining his composure, he formed a giant rasenshuriken and threw it without hesitation. But Sasuke was quick. He raced to Naruto and then kicked him across the field to where he previously had been, in direct line of the sage's jutsu. He activated his mangekyo sharingan and stared the rasenshuriken down.

"_Amaterasu!_" The jutsu caught fire, and the boys relished in their chakra molding for a brief moment before Kiba screamed from across the field, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING?!"

Naruto barely evaded the flaming jutsu, watching it go into the woods behind him and burning everything to a crisp. He had the decency to allow Sasuke a moment to put out the flames before he was on him again, this time pulling out a kunai to counteract Sasuke's kusanagi.

The two of them danced around each other, striking and guarding until the katana pierced through the kunai and the two boys distanced themselves. Naruto bit his thumb and Sasuke quickly followed suit.

_"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"_

That night, the training fields became a giant crater.

* * *

"Sasuke-kunnnnnn!" There was excessive knocking on his apartment door, and the sound of giggling.

This was it, Sasuke officially hated Sakura because there was clearly more than one voice coming from behind the door. Opening the entrance and sealing his fate, Sasuke was met with five very familiar kunoichi.

Sakura, Ino, Tenten, Hinata and Karin were nearly bouncing up and down in excitement, and when his face appeared in the doorway they all squealed their greetings (save for Hinata).

Now, Uchiha's didn't flush with embarrassment, but Sasuke's face did turn red. He figured a few blood vessels had popped on his cheeks. That fight with Naruto must've really taken a toll on him.

He was feeling flustered and light-headed - _He was dizzy! He was feeling faint from the chakra exhaustion!_

And his cheeks were really burning - _A fever! Illness!_

And his heart ached with nervousness - _Cardiac arrest! Everyone needs to leave!_

The girls came flooding in with their packs and heading straight for the living room. "Sasuke-kun, is it okay if we put our things in your room?" Hinata asked politely, all of the kunoichi standing in front of his bedroom doorway patiently.

Sasuke was surprised, he greatly appreciated the gesture. So greatly, in fact, that he was willing to let the girls stay and have their slumber party. Just this once. He nodded his head and then made his way into the kitchen, where he figured he should see if he had any food to satiate his guests.

Of course he did. The day before, he had gone grocery shopping with Sakura.

Damn, he should've been able to tell what she was planning - what, with all of the food she made him buy. He just figured she was feeling piggish and wanted an endless supply of snacks she could run off to should her fridge empty.

Nowadays, it was as if he was under a genjutsu every time he was with the pinkette. He'd meet up with her or she would spirit him away from his house and they would fall into routine dialogue and physical interaction. It was almost as if they were... best friends - as if.. Sasuke were actually her lovely 'gay friend'. Sasuke shuddered before walking over and leaning against the counter and shouting out, "What do you guys want to eat?"

There was sudden pitter-patter as the girls basically ran into the kitchen, excited about a meal; excited about Sasuke's apartment; excited about Sasuke.

Sakura dove right into a tour of the fridge and small pantry, going over all of the things they had bought the day before and which was for taking and which needed to be asked for. They dug in, bringing out snacks and appetizers and preheating the oven before turning on the stove.

Hinata volunteered to make the actual meal, to which Sasuke practically flung his frying pan at her in desperate agreement.

Some of them got to chopping vegetables while others prepared the rice and brought out the meat. It was such a sense of 'togetherness', Sasuke was a little overwhelmed. It was very similar to the feeling of family, but very different.

Throughout his years, Sasuke learned that there were different feelings of 'family'. There was the inital one, back when he was a young child and he had his mother, father and brother; there was the second, when he was a part of Team 7 and then later when he was a part of Team Taka (and now with the current Team 7/Team Kakashi) - a small group that had the roles of brothers and sisters and, in Team 7's case, a father; then the third, when he was with Naruto.

This was Sasuke's favorite. When Sasuke spent time with Naruto, when they cooked together, cleaned one or the other's apartment together, slept together, Sasuke felt a more domestic sense of family. He figured this was what his mother and father felt when they were together, when they were raising children.

And now he found a fourth. Though they were all ninja like him, though Karin and Sakura were members of his teams, this was very different from a 'team family'. They weren't on a mission, they weren't doing this to survive or doing it out of necessity, but rather doing it for the fun of it.

Hinata could very well do it all on her own, but everyone grabbed something and was helping in some way. It was a togetherness that Sasuke wasn't very used to, considering a lot of the guys still only spent time with him if Naruto was there to keep them together. And men didn't cook much with each other, either.

Sasuke hid a smile.

Eventually, everything was set up and all that was left was for Hinata to put it on the pan and cook it. Everyone was sitting around the kitchen, some on the countertops and some at the the table. They were chatting about this and that, boys and shopping and missions. Sasuke remained quiet for the most part, only putting in a few words when anything related to training and fighting came up. That was when it happened.

Another thing that Sasuke never wanted to happen, ever.

"Sasuke, what's wrong?" Karin's voice was almost monotone, demanding he answer the question honestly. She could read him, literally read him - his chakra left him open to the Uzumaki depsite his greatest efforts.

The tone she said it in alerted the other women in the room that Sasuke had been brooding this entire time, and that Karin was sick of him not saying anything. All in all, this meant that he was going to have to fess up, to sit them around in a circle and have a powow (that's what they called it, right?).

Sasuke sighed, looking around the room and knowing he wouldn't be able to deny it and walk away. These girls were guests in his house, and though he normally wouldn't let that stop him from being a bastard, he had the blackmail to think of.

Yeah, that's what it was.

"Naruto's jealous," was all he had to say for all of the girls to come running to the table. Even Hinata set the stove to simmer and made her way over.

All of them leaned in close, their high-pitched voices intermingling and sounding like a crowd of millions all in Sasuke's face. Questions were flying, but the main point was to get the whole story, and so Sasuke started from the beginning, talking about how the two of them had gone sparring together.

He told with a red, red face the moment they'd shared before the others had shown up. Then he went into the fight, how Naruto was upset that Sasuke was spending so much time with Sakura, how they had really used their ninjutsu against one another; how Sasuke had even hit chakra exhaustion and Naruto had infused him with Kurama's chakra in order to keep the fight going; how, in the end, chidori and rasengan had ended the fight, just like all of their other battles. They were lying in the crater, no real victor as per usual.

They had just silently gotten up and left in opposite directions.

"Oh my gosh!"

"Sasuke-kun!"

"Sasuke, you idiot!" Karin smacked him. Sasuke looked seriously offended and she explained herself, "You shouldn't have fought so hard!"

She offered her arm for his chakra exhaustion and he bit into it gently, her reaction no longer sexual, but now rather pissy. Hinata scooted closer to him.

"S-Sasuke-kun, what Karin is trying to say is - is that you probably hurt Naruto-kun's feelings by trying to win the fight. If - if I told you to fight me over who you were going to spend time with... I - I'd get upset if you tried so hard to win so - s-so that you could be with Sakura."

Sasuke took a moment to let her words sink in, not noticing at all the guilty look that adorned his pink-haired friend's face. He could understand Hinata's explanation. In fact, everything made a lot more sense when put under another light. He would too - would feel hurt if Naruto tried to beat him so seriously over someone else.

It reminded him of when he had killed Danzo, and Sakura had come to him. Though he was not thinking clearly at the time (he hates himself for trying to kill his friend), he had been somewhat hurt that Naruto fought him to protect Sakura. He was trying to killer her not him, and yet...

"I see," he muttered, suddenly humbled by his revelation.

"You should call him," Ino decided for him. The rest of the girls nodded in agreement. Call him? That was so... gay.

To call Naruto and - ugh - _apologize_ was really, really gay.

That was something you saw on a TV drama or romance movie: the guy fights with the girl and then one of them calls the other and leaves a really goofy but endearing message that wins them over. And they show up at their doorstep...

He was handed the phone, and he had no choice. He dialed the number he memorized (making him realize that he talked to Naruto on the phone way too much) and listened to his heart beat go faster than the ringing on his end.

"Hello?"

Silence.

The girls looked at him, their faces filled with horror as they mouthed 'say something, SAY SOMETHING!'.

Sasuke stared, but wasn't really looking at them. He was frozen.

The girls didn't understand that Sasuke was about to fucking apologize. It normally would take 3.5 weeks to muster up enough willpower to apologize to Naruto, and now they were trying to make him do so in approximately... three hours.

"Hello?" No.

"Naruto," Sasuke breathed. There was sudden silence on the other end.

"Sasuke." He finally said back. There was more silence until the raven suddenly bursted out of nowhere.

"You're a dobe loser and you'll never beat me at a battle so stop trying!" And he promptly hung up. Chaos ensued in the Uchiha apartment, the neighbors fearing that velociraptors had come back to life and were now attacking their complex.

"Sasuke!"

"Sasuke-kun!"

"Sasuke-kun, how could you!"

"Sasuke, you dumbass!"

"S-Sasuke-kun!"

"I got nervous," Sasuke stated monotonously, as if it explained his behavior for the past twenty years of his life.

The girls sighed in defeat - but not Sakura. No, she got up and whacked Sasuke upside the head. After the rather loud thump that sounded when Sakura's fist met Sasuke's head, his hand flew to his damaged skull and attempted to soothe it better, all the while glaring at his "girlfriend".

"You deserve it!" Sakura glared back before her expression softened.

"I did hit you pretty hard, though... Do you want some medicine for you boo-boo?" She cooed as she held up a bag of - Sasuke did a double-take - marijuana. "Ooh!" Ino clapped in delight while the other girls tried to be discreet about how much this pleased them. Seeing Sasuke's facade of indifference, Sakura rolled her eyes and curled her lip as if disgusted.

"Oh, please! It's not as if you've never done it, Sasuke-kun!"

"E-Everyone does it sometimes..." Hinata added, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself of this fact. Sakura furrowed her eyebrows.

"Don't you think it's a little suspicious when I go to Naruto's place and you, Naruto and the rest of Team Taka are all passed out in the living room with the TV playing kids' shows, the kitchen's a mess, the blankets are all over and all of the instant ramen is gone?" Sasuke rolled his eyes and Karin's own eyes danced with laughter at the memories.

Sakura put her sunglasses on, "Still criminals in the end, and now you're dragging in my innocent blond for the ride - now take this and make us some joints or I'll tell Naruto about your man-crush on him." She threw the bag and nearly hit him in the face with it.

For the first time since he was seven, Sasuke thought someone was really cool.

"And that's how cacti came to be," Hinata ended her tale nonchalantly as she blew smoke from her mouth. The young Hyuuga was quite the story-teller under the influence, all of her companions listening intently as she taught them how the wonders of the planet began.

All of the stories tended to be about plantlife and all of them had this reoccurring theme of Hinata being the sole creator of all things in nature.

Sasuke snorted, "Get out of here."

"It's true, look it up," Hinata countered with a confidence she wished she could express in her sober life.

Ino giggled while Tenten complained about not having anything left to munch on. It was as if they hadn't cooked a meal, not even a single morsel left behind as they continued smoking and eating at a constant and balanced rate.

Karin jumped up, suddenly remembering something and pointing at Sakura. "The fridge! The things I brought!" There was a language to this system that the cherry-blossom luckily understood and she ventured to the fridge to pull out something that riled Sasuke up uncharacteristically.

"Oh!" He gasped in surprise and almost flailed his arm - almost - as he reached out, willing Sakura to come back to the table faster.

On the plate she was holding was a rather large batch of onigiri. The Uchiha was beginning to resemble a toddler reaching for desert while stuck in a high chair. Karin turned to Sasuke, very much excited to please him.

"They have okaka," she added and waited for the realization to hit him.

Sasuke paused in his twitching and slowly turned to the female Uzumaki with a look of absolute shock on his face, as if nobody was supposed to know what his favorite food was; as if it was impossible to find rice cakes with okaka and Karin had somehow done it through a series difficult and life-altering tasks - as if she had risked everything to get this food for him in order to prove her everlasting loyalty.

He threw his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, pointing at her person as he spoke excitedly, "See? This is why I chose her - _this is why I chose her to be on my team!"_

The girls laughed at the display before eagerly distributing the traditional treats around the table. The joint they were currently smoking made its way to Sasuke again just as he was about to bite down on his onigiri.

He took his turn and then quickly returned to the more important task of satiating his seemingly eternal hunger. Taking his first bite, he moaned as if he was having the best sex of his life, the grains of rice tickling his tongue and the okaka's fishy taste moistening his mouth so that everything could cascade down his throat sensually.

Sasuke sat there in deep thought after his first bite. _That was kind of hard to swallow. The rice is so perfectly sticky._

Mentally shrugging off his observation, he continued to shovel the rice down his throat as if he hadn't eaten in days. He stopped again after he realized that he was having a hard time breathing because he wasn't controlling himself.

He took a minute to make sure all of the food was making its way towards his stomach. A sudden flash of heat hit his body in what he was sure was slight panic. Some sweat immediately formed on his back and armpits.

"What's wrong, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura started laughing at just the thought of Sasuke saying something funny.

"We're risking our lives eating this stuff," he said slowly, staring at the onigiri as if it was betraying him.

"What?" Ino exclaimed incredulously.

"No, listen!" Sasuke shushed her hurriedly, "It's just... so hard to swallow sticky rice! Its purpose is to bunch up and its bunching up in my throat and trying to block my airways."

"Sasuke-kun, seriously-"

"No, Sakura! People die every year from choking on mocchi-"

"But this isn't mocchi-"

"-and I will be _damned_ if I die like this! I am Uchiha Sasuke of the fucking _Uchiha_ clan, Konoha Academy prodigy and first in class, former S-rank criminal and rogue ninja, carrier of the Sage's son's soul, and one of the second generation of the sannin - 'Oh, wow, that must've been one hell of a mission that killed him!'"

Sasuke began making wild hand gestures to accompany the fake conversation between two example civilians, "'Oh, no, he just choked on a _rice cake!_'" Sasuke slammed his hand on the table. Hinata imitated him and gestured wildly.

"But you would die from luxury. You would be enjoying your strength and power _so damn much_, that it took your life-"

"HINATA, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" Sasuke screamed at her before pointing at Tenten and telling her to go get his vacuum with the special nozzle* so that he could continue eating his onigiri in peace. Ino was in hysterics, laughing so hard that her face resembled Sasuke's favorite fruit.

The joint came back to Sasuke once again and Ino flailed her arms wildly, "Get it - get it away from him!" She was gasping, trying so hard to catch her breath.

After having their fill of delicious foods and practically emptying Sasuke's fridge, the group went into the living room and sat in a circle on the floor to play strip poker. Sasuke was very surprised that girls did fun things like this at sleepovers. He thought they sat around and talked about boys and makeup and did each other's hair.

Smoking pot and playing cards while undressing was definitely not what he was expecting. Though naturally talented in practically everything normally, while under the influence Sasuke was almost as bad as Naruto back in the academy days. He was currently seated between Karin and Ino in only a pair of black boxer briefs.

"I don't want to play anymore. It can only go downhill from here." Sasuke threw in his cards. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was taking note of how unlike himself he was being, but he was too high to care.

His friends groaned, having wanted to get him to strip his last item of clothing. Karin threw her cards in the air in defeat and the rest of the girls soon followed the gesture, all of them laughing at the rain of suits and kings and queens and Jacks.

Ino pulled out an empty soy sauce bottle and put it in the middle of the circle. Sasuke's eyebrows raised. They weren't going to start kissing each other, were they?

As a closeted pervert he couldn't help but find the idea very appealing.

He sat up, now a little more attentive.

"Okay!" Ino clapped her hands, "If the bottle lands on you, you have to answer a question honestly no matter what!" Sasuke frowned.

The blond spun the bottle first, using way too much strength. They watched it spin for several seconds before it finally came to a stop in front of Hinata.

Ino went to clap her hands once again and Sasuke nearly lunged at her to grab her wrists and stop her. "Don't," he hissed viciously. She simply laughed in response, which caused Sasuke to laugh, which caused everyone else to laugh while wondering what happened exactly.

"Okay, Hinata," Sakura began, clearly being the only one to remember what they were doing, "So is it true that you have a huge crush on..." Sasuke held his breath. Everyone knew Hinata had always liked Naruto.

Why was Sakura rubbing this in his face; the fact that the Hyuuga had the possibility of being with the dobe while he didn't? Why was she suddenly evil? Sasuke felt like crying, but he knew it was only because he wasn't in the right state of mind.

"...Kiba?" Wait, what?

Hinata blushed and seemed shy for the first time since she started smoking. It was at that moment that she opened up like a book, words pouring out and filling everyone with the imagery that the shy ninja really wanted everyone to believe that it wasn't that big of a deal, that it wasn't that big of a crush - but it really, really was.

Sasuke's mind seemed to reject every word that poured out of the Hyuuga's mouth, because he couldn't even recall what she had been talking about, much less remember that she was talking at all. He turned to Sakura and narrowed his eyes.

"Why do you know who everyone likes? Who are you?"

"Sasuke, it isn't your turn yet," Tenten said cheekily as she handed the bottle over to Hinata for her to spin. Sasuke watched lazily as the bottle stopped spinning with the neck pointing at Karin. He picked up a glass of water and nearly choked chugging it down.

"Karinnn," Ino taunted cutely and watched Sasuke to make sure he wasn't paying attention to her.

When she thought he wasn't looking, she clapped, but the Uchiha heard the sound and couldn't help but snort with laughter.

"Okay, Karin-chan," Hinata touched the tips of her fingers together. "Have you ever had sex with Suigetsu?"

Sasuke spit his drink out so violently that it sprayed the entire circle of girls and they were wet within seconds. They groaned and laughed at the same time while Sasuke turned to Karin incredulously, as if it wasn't possible to ever ask the redhead such a question about _anyone_, let alone _Suigetsu_.

Karin did her best to ignore Sasuke as she grabbed the bottle and grunted, "What do you think?" before spinning it once again. The young Uchiha grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her.

"This is _not_ okay! This is not okay! Suigetsu! _Suigetsu?!_ Karin, no! He is water and you are human flesh! Liquids vs solids! _Suigetsu_," he gestured wildly to his left before bringing his attention back to Karin, "KARIN!"

"Remind me to never again give Sasuke pot," Sakura sighed heavily.

Karin simply rolled her eyes and mumbled something about him always getting exciteable when he smoked. The bottle landed with the nose pointing at Sakura, and the Uzumaki smirked evilly before her facial expression changed into one of genuine curiosity.

"Is it, like... weird - or rather, isn't it awkward to do anything sexual with Lee when he has those.." Karin coughed, "Soul-piercing eyes?"

There was an uproar of laughter louder than any series of explosions the ninja had witnessed via traps and exploding tags. If the neighbors thought the screaming from earlier was frightening, then they were most definitely boarding up their windows by this point.

There were tears streaming down everyone(minus Sakura)'s faces. The pink-haired kunoichi looked a little ticked off, but couldn't fully express it due to her high.

Sakura stood and pouted, only in her bra and leggings. She stomped her foot like a five-year-old and shouted, "No! It's not awkward! I _love_ Lee-san!" The laughter died down rather quickly, and everyone stared at her in awe.

Their little cherry-blossom had certainly grown and bloomed beautifully. Years ago, Sakura wouldn't even look at Lee, too embarrassed by his less-than-perfect image to be seen with him. And now, rather than embarrassed, she was angry that people would say rude things about him.

"Aww!" Ino squealed and everyone rushed to hug her before she pushed them all off and spun the bottle.

_Of course_, Sasuke thought to himself as the bottle landed on him.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun," Sakura gushed in a sing-song voice.

"Do you like girls and guys?" Tenten bursted out, "Or just guys? Or is Naruto the only guy you've ever liked?

"Have you ever slept with another guy?" Karin was curious.

"Do you usually top or bottom?" Ino pushed.

Sakura's scowl matched Sasuke's as the questions sunk in. The Uchiha knew this was going to happen. He knew that when it came time for him to answer a question he would get several more than what the "rules" said.

Sasuke pointed at Tenten, "I would say I am attracted to both, I suppose. But I do want to say that Naruto is the only guy that I've actually ever felt more than basic attraction for." Since when was he so open? Sakura smiled as he shyly answered the questions while trying to keep an air of confidence.

Over the past few weeks, Sasuke had really seemed to be warming up to her (and the other girls), which had been Sakura's intention from the start. She never wanted to blackmail Sasuke.

In fact, it embarrassed her that she even had to in the first place.

She never wanted to be so selfish, but she had always felt left out when it came to Naruto and Sasuke. Those two had something that no one else could possibly have; they were destined to be together for the rest of eternity, somehow finding each other in each life. What about Sakura?

She didn't want to come inbetween them, she wanted to be a part of them. But, in the end, that's what ended up happening: Naruto and Sasuke got into a fight because Sasuke was being forced to choose Sakura instead of picking Naruto like always.

"Yes, I've slept with another guy."

"Really?!"

"Who?!"

"Anyone we know?"

"Tell us right now, Sasuke!" Karin practically jumped on him.

Sasuke contemplated telling the truth. He wasn't particularly ashamed or embarrassed of his sex life, but there were a few guys that he had slept with that probably wouldn't appreciate Sasuke revealing their escapades.

The young Uchiha rolled his eyes. These were his girlfriends, he couldn't let them down. Also, they only seemed to gossip within their little circle. "Yes, you know a couple of them."

"Oh my God!" Ino squealed and flailed her hands around in excitement.

Sakura wondered whether or not she was actually making progress with Sasuke or not. She wondered if he would stop this whole farce with her if given the opportunity.

Was he only humoring her until - until what? Until he got over this little crush on Naruto?

Sakura wanted Sasuke to have his happiness, to throw away all of his deep insecurities and inhibitions and be with whoever he wanted to be. She wanted to be the friend that supported him all the way, the friend that schemed to hook the Uchiha up with the person he liked.

But... if she did that, then Sasuke would have no reason to stay by her side.

Naruto wouldn't have any reason to cling to her.

She would be even more of a third wheel than before, and that thought scared her.

"They were kind of one-time things, though.." Sasuke trailed off, discreetly rubbing the back of his neck.

"Tell us anyway, we won't tell a soul!"

"Okay," Sasuke laughed - but with less intensity than before. He seemed to be coming down from his high, "Well, one of them was Sai."

"SAI?!" Everyone screamed shrilly. Sasuke's neighbors were going to hate him more than they already did.

"Yes, I would rather not talk about it."

"Who's the next, who's the next?!"

"This was seriously a drunken accident," Sasuke swore, but upon seeing the expressions on the other girls' faces, he faltered, "And then a sober accident the next few times." They all squealed and chatted excitedly between themselves before calming and leaning in towards the Uchiha as if he were a magnet attracting them.

"It was-" he abruptly cut himself off, looking over at Hinata and staring for a few seconds. He contemplated his answer fully before lying through his teeth, "...Shino."

The girls repeated the name incredulously, laughing and squealing and touching Sasuke teasingly.

"Next question, next question!"

"Do I bottom? No way, I only top."

The chatter clashed and sounded like a mesh of noises rather than actual words or sentences.

"Well, what if Naruto wanted to top?" Sakura spoke up for the first time since she spun the bottle.

Sasuke seemed caught off guard, and she let him have his moment to process the question. She needed to know just what kind of chance she had, where she was officially standing in their friendship.

"Ah, well, that's different," and that was her answer. The way Sasuke's eyes traveled downwards as he smiled shyly, a light blush forming on his face. The fondness in that far away stare, those onyx irises seeming to shine so brightly...

Sakura had no place.

* * *

When Sakura didn't call him for their usual Tuesday shopping trip, Sasuke was a little concerned (not that he would admit it).

It looked like it was about to rain, and the Uchiha didn't particularly like the rain - rather, he hated it - but he made the cautious trek to Sakura's apartment anyway. It wasn't like he was worried about her or anything, he just didn't want her later saying that he never fulfilled his part of the deal.

It was Lee that opened the door, and if his enthusiastic greeting wasn't annoying enough, Sakura's lack of dress was even more so. Sasuke was surprised to find himself really irritated by this fact. Was Sakura not planning on calling him ever?

Not that he looked forward to shopping with Sakura. It was because he kept his schedule clear for this particular occasion and so without it, all of his weekly plans were ruined.

"You don't have to hang out with me anymore," She got right to point upon standing before the Uchiha. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, completely unamused. "It was wrong of me to have to.. to blackmail you just to spend some time with you. I'm ashamed of myself, especially since I wasn't just exploiting some little crush of yours. You really love him... I'm so selfish. I'm so sorry, Sasuke-kun."

There was silence.

Sakura bit her lip, trying not to fidget nervously in front of Sasuke as she waited for a response. She felt that would only fuel any anger he might have. Her palms were sweating. Things would go back to normal soon, she hoped. She really hoped that Sasuke would find a forgiving bone in his body and let them move on from this stupid idea she had, from that stupid 'cool' facade she put on.

"There's a sale on sandals down the main street. Get dressed."

Sakura's mouth made a small 'O' as she tried to process what had happened. Sasuke... wanted to go shopping with her.

"I'm not patient," his voice cut her off before she could even begin the large thought process necessary to understand this situation. Sakura quickly turned and ran to her room, Lee having gone back to bed.

"Lee-san, I'm going shopping!" She laughed incredulously as she put on her leggings, "I'm going shopping with Sasuke-kun!"

His response was still oozing with enthusiasm even though he was half-asleep.

They were walking throughout the market place that was less crowded than usual due to the rain warning. Many outdoor vendors had their stands empty for the day or were constantly keeping watch over makeshift tents they temporarily housed themselves under.

The air was unnaturally cold for the summer weather, but hell would freeze over before Sasuke shivered in his sleeveless shirt. Sakura had been smart enough to bring a light sweater, but she was a girl and they usually got cold far too easily.

Uchiha's didn't get cold.

That was when Naruto showed up. He happened to be passing by the pair when he caught sight of them, and they caught sight of him. Sakura wasn't sure if this was awkward or not, but she would've rathered one of the two boys not being there. She wasn't ready for the harsh reality of being the third wheel so soon after Sasuke showed he wanted to hang out with her.

There were a few moments of silence after Naruto and Sakura enthusiastically greeted each other. "Hey, Teme," Naruto mumbled shyly.

"Hi." Sasuke replied with the same tone.

Sakura wanted to leave.

Suddenly, Naruto took off his favorite black and orange sweater and put it around Sasuke's shoulders, tugging so that the Uchiha would move closer to him. "It's cold out," he said quietly.

Sasuke ducked his head into the collar and smiled while discreetly inhaling Naruto's scent. All was forgiven. Sakura sighed in relief and spoke up, "Naruto, do you want to go with us to get sandals? You probably need them."

"Actually, Iruka-sensei got me a new pair last week, so I'm good!" He smiled brightly, and suddenly things felt like they were back to normal - and as if nothing had ever happened to make things feel awkward. "Besides, I'm supposed to be hanging out with Sai today."

"Okay, then." Sakura replied in understanding. Sasuke nodded and let out a grunt.

And then Naruto rushed forward and brought both of them into a bone-crushing hug. Sakura and Sasuke returned the embrace, the three of them holding each other in perfect harmony and friendship.

And Sakura wondered why she ever thought she didn't belong.

"I'll see you guys later!" Naruto shouted obnoxiously as he ran in the direction towards Sai's house. The other two waved back until he was no longer looking at them before turning back around and heading towards the sandal shop.

The two walked in a comfortable silence that Sakura appreciated more than anything. This was what she wanted with Sasuke, this ability to be by his side and not feel like she needed to fill the air with meaningless small talk. She felt giddy enough to try something crazy. Failing to be discreet, Sakura scooted closer to Sasuke. The Uchiha pretended to ignore her.

But then there was something grabbing his hand.

It was another hand.

A girl hand.

Sakura keeps doing these things to him.

He squeezed her fingers in his, and the lovely kunoichi smiled the most brilliant smile Sasuke had ever seen on her face. Without breaking the silence, Sakura kept eye contact with her friend as she playfully swung their hands back and forth.

Though Sasuke didn't put any added motion with her, he allowed the gushy gesture and even smiled a little at the pinkette. Sakura giggled and stopped the obnoxious hand-swinging, looking forward once again and keeping an eye out for the sandal sale.

"Look, it's Ino," Sasuke suddenly spoke. It was part of the girl rules to point out any of the girlfriends in the general area if not everyone noticed her.

Sakura's emeralds zeroed in on the blond. Ino was walking with a face-stretching smile, her arms wrapped around the strong arm of a bored-looking Shikamaru. She was chatting excitedly about something, every once in a while giggling and leaning her head on his shoulder.

Shikamaru seemed embarrassed about some of the things she was saying. Curious about the situation, Sakura lead Sasuke over to the pair to greet them.

"Hi there!" She called out pleasantly. Ino instantly took her head off of Shika's shoulder and greeted them back. It was plainly obvious through the excitement in her tone that she wanted to simply skip the greetings and get straight to the point of their approach.

"You'll never guess the good news!" Ino gushed, squeezing a silent Shikamaru's arm even deeper into her bossom. The latter rolled his eyes, trying to hide a smile.

"No, I won't," Sasuke replied.

"Well," Ino pulled back from her teammate only to slam right back into him, "Shikamaru finally proposed to Temari! My big boy's getting married!" She kissed him on the cheek and squealed before jumping up and down against his arm.

Sasuke had to refrain himself from making a comment involving a rabbit in heat.

His eyes widened as the information finally sunk in. He turned to the shadow ninja and nodded his head in congratulations while paying his respects for the death of Shikamaru's youth and manhood.

"Oh my gosh!" Sakura let go of Sasuke's hand in favor of bringing both of hers to her face in genuine surprise. "I'm so happy for you! Congratulations!" The pinkette wrapped her arms around Shika and kissed him on the cheek.

"Troublesome."

"It's about time, right?" Ino smirked before her smug expression faltered, "I was planning on throwing them an engagement party tonight, but.."

"What is it?" Sakura didn't like the idea of a party with potential intoxication being cancelled.

"I was going to hold it at the public hall on the other side of town, but someone had already rented it out. I can't find another place big enough on such short notice.."

Sasuke fought a battle within himself.

As the amazing gay friend, he was supposed to offer up the Uchiha mansion for such an occasion. As Uchiha Sasuke, he was reluctant. People would be flooding his newly built home, drunk and obnoxious and destructive.

Amazing Gay Friend was looking forward to a social gathering of his friends and makeshift familiy in order to celebrate a new step in a fellow companion's life. Uchiha Sasuke would have to deal with people that he believed never really cared about him, drunk and yelling and ruining the house he built from scratch.

Sasuke had built that house for when he got married and began restoring the Uchiha clan... Except now his circumstances had changed. He foolishly dreamed of moving in with Naruto and growing old in the house together with maybe a few adopted children.

It was stupid, an impossible dream, but it made the house mean a lot more, and to just have everyone in it... Gay Friend Sasuke and Uchiha Sasuke fought each other, the victor determining what choice he would make in the situation.

Sasuke - New and Youthful Sasuke; the Sasuke that helped save the world and became a sage; the Sasuke that cared about the people around him; the Sasuke that wanted to create a new village where no one was miserable; the Sasuke that loved Naruto very much and wanted to be a little more like him; the Sasuke that wanted to put his awful past behind him; the Sasuke that wanted to be carefree and have fun; the Sasuke that loved Sakura very much and wanted to live every single day to the fullest - made the decision instead.

"I guess you can have the party at my house as long as you don't break anything."

"Really?" Ino cried out in incredulous delight. Shikamaru's eyes widened in both shock and appreciation.

"Wow, Sasuke... thank you."

"Sasuke-kun, this is great!" Sakura imitated Ino and wrapped her arms around his right one, pressing herself close to him.

"Then the party's still on!" Ino shouted happily.

"Troublesome."

"We have to let everyone know!"

"Troublesome."

"We have to get the food!"

"Troublesome."

"Oh, oh!" Ino's eyes widened with dread, "We still have to set everything up! We have to get the house ready...!"

"Troublesome."

"Don't worry about it," Sasuke said nonchalantly, "Sakura and I will clean the house."

"Wow, Sasuke-kun!" Ino teared up and hugged him close, "Thank you so much! This will mean a lot to everyone..!" Sasuke slowly wrapped his arms around her and held her tight, his heart feeling warm and fuzzy.

Because you can't just train and that's it.

* * *

"Sasuke-kun, you need to be careful what you say to Ino," Sakura said out of the blue as she continued stocking the fridge with bottles of beer. They had just finished cleaning the house and themselves, leaving only the task of fililng the fridge with the copious amounts of alcohol they had for the party. Sasuke reminded Sakura to leave room for the cake before demanding she further explain her previous statement.

"All I'm saying is that you shouldn't tell Ino certain secrets," this is what Sasuke had been dreading: catty behavior.

One thing Sasuke despised about women was their incessant back-stabbing and gossip, their unnatural need to talk about each other behind one-another's backs and then hug and giggle and say how much they love each other to their faces. Such two-faced behavior made the Uchiha sick to his stomach. He had been having so much fun with his girlfriends and their unexpected coolness that he forgot they could be just like other girls.

"Why? Because she's a blond bitch?" Sasuke seethed sarcastically.

Sakura seemed taken aback by his comment, and it was then that Sasuke realized his girls indeed were different from the rest. Sakura wasn't talking bad about Ino at all, nor was she trying to somehow get him against her over something stupid. There was a real reason for her warning.

"Um, yes, I suppose."

"What?"

Sakura laughed lightly at his expression and sighed, "You ever hear of blonds sticking together?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow, urging the pinkette to continue. Sakura went back to putting beers in the fridge, "No one really knows this, but Ino and Naruto are really, really close."

"Really?" Sasuke couldn't help but ask. This was a surprise to him.

"Oh, yes!" The pink-haired kunoichi nodded enthusiastically, "They bonded one day when Naruto went to get flowers for Jiraiya at her shop - you know how Naruto loves plants," Sakura sounded like a mother babbling about her own son, "They really hit it off and have been best buddies ever since. I guess you could say Naruto would be Ino's gay friend if he were gay."

Sakura laughed. "That's why you shouldn't tell Ino too much. She's a great friend, but she's very loyal to Naruto and will turn around and tell him any juicy secrets you give about him."

Sasuke's eyes widened in horror.

"Sakura," he breathed as he stood up in a panic.

"Don't worry!" She turned and motioned for him to sit back down at the table, where he had been resting after so much cleaning. "She doesn't really remember much from when we smoked."

Sasuke slumped in his seat in a very un-Uchiha-like manner. Putting the last beer in the fridge, Sakura closed the door and opened the freezer, putting the heavier liquor inside. This took significantly less time, and she was done within minutes, clapping her hands and turning to Sasuke enthusiastically.

They were officially done with their party preparations, and Ino would arrive soon with the cake and a plethora of guests. Since there was some time before any of that happened, Sakura was hoping Sasuke would let her play with his hair or something else fruity.

"So, Sasuke-kun, what do you want to -" The door slammed open.

"Sasuke!" a voice yelled out. Sakura couldn't believe her ears.

"Kiba?" She called out confusedly, never having expected dog-boy to come running into the Uchiha household as if he was familiar with anything relating to Sasuke.

Didn't Kiba hate the Uchiha? She was pretty sure he was still holding a grudge against him for hurting Naruto and endangering Akamaru during the retreival mission. The aforementioned dog could be heard waiting to enter the house.

"Wipe your feet, boy," she heard Kiba command quietly before hearing the scrape of the big white dog wiping his feet on the welcome mat. Sasuke had stood up and walked past her without a single glance, almost as if he were trying to hide something from her and would fail to do so should he look her way. Without another word, she followed him into the hallway to see what this surprise visit was really all about.

She turned the corner to the front hall to see Kiba grabbing Sasuke's shoulders roughly and shaking them, "Sasuke, man, I did something bad! You have to help me!"

Sakura was officially confused beyond all belief.

Kiba - _Inuzuka Kiba_ \- was acting like Sasuke - _Uchiha Sasuke_ \- was his _friend_ or something.

"Why would I help an idiot like you?"

"...You're right, I did a really shitty thing." Sasuke seemed surprised by his response and stepped aside so that Kiba could enter the house.

He ignored Akamaru even as the dog tried to grab the Uchiha's love and attention. Sakura felt bad for him, knowing that feeling from past experience.

"C'mere, Akamaru," she cooed sweetly, and the white beast walked over to her and received his well-deserved affection. Kiba noticed the pinkette and went pale.

"Oh... Hey, Sakura.."

"What are you doing here? The party doesn't start until later." She got straight to the point, not feeling comfortable with Kiba's familiarity toward Sasuke.

Was she not being let in on something? Maybe Sasuke and Kiba were secretly buddies like Ino and Naruto. They probably just kept a front when in public but then went over to each other's apartments and hung out.

"What did you do." Sasuke demanded rather than asked.

"I shouldn't have come here."

"Tell me."

"You're going to kill me."

"Now you really have to tell me," Sasuke's voice was getting deeper and more vicious with each insistant repeat.

"I don't know why I thought you'd protect me."

"From what?"

"From Naruto."

Both Sakura and Sasuke raised their eyebrows in surprise. Naruto and Kiba were best pals. There was no way Naruto was hunting him down in a fit of rage.

"What could you have possibly done to get Naruto so angry as to get you to come to Sasuke-kun for help?" Sakura asked incredulously.

The whole situation made absolutely no sense. Kiba and Sasuke definitely had some sort of friendship. Kiba wouldn't just go to Sasuke for help if he really did hate him. His pride would get in the way. The Inuzuka stared at Sakura for a long time, apparently confused by - not necessarily the questions itself, but rather what the question implied: that he and Sasuke were in no way associated with each other.

"Oh yeah," he muttered nonchalantly, "You told them it was Shino, right?"

"Shino...?" Sakura mumbled to herself. Then she remembered.

_"This was seriously a drunken accident... and then a sober accident the next few times. It was -" Sasuke looked at Hinata and paused, "...Shino."_

Sakura covered her blushing face and let out a small scream. _Ohmygodohmygodohmygod_ \- was running through her head at dangerous speeds, creating an incomprehensible babble of shock and fangirlism. "You were sleeping with Kiba?!" she shrieked.

Sasuke and Kiba both made faces of displeasure and deadpanned, "Yeah."

"It was a one-time thing.." Kiba livened up and tried to calm her down, ".. every two days or so."

"Oh my GOD!" She turned away from him, face redder than a strawberry. Sasuke quickly intervened and smacked Kiba upside the head before B-lining towards the pink-haired woman shrieking with embarrassment.

"Sasuke what are you doing-"

"I'm making her _forget!_" He hissed like a snake, his sharingan swirling madly.

"No, no!" Sakura held her hands up in defence, refusing to look up at Sasuke's face and into his eyes. "I'm just shocked is all! There's nothing to be embarrassed about, this is better than it actually being Shino!" There was silence, and Sakura slowly looked up to find Sasuke with an expression she couldn't exactly read. It looked like a mixture between guilt and gratitude.

"So, Kiba, you were about to tell a story?"

Kiba stiffened, "No, I wasn't, I was just leaving-"

"You're telling the story!" Sasuke's rinnegan revealed itself and Kiba nearly screamed like a little girl.

"Okay, okay! So I was at the bar just getting a beer, you know? And suddenly Sai and Naruto walk in and I'm like, 'helll yeah, guys come over here!' and then they're all, 'it's Kiba, the coolest ninja in Konoha!'"

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"And we all sit down and drink a cold one together like bros are supposed to do and Sai brings up a conversation that Naruto and Ino had concerning Sasuke's sexcapades."

Sasuke glared at Sakura. _Didn't remember much, my ass._

"Luckily, Sasuke and I had talked on the phone last night so I knew that he lied and said he had slept with Shino instead of -"

"_Why_ were you two talking on the phone?" Sakura gestured wildly. The boys looked at her incredulously while making dick-sucking motions and pointing at each other.

She knew what the gesture meant but didn't understand at all what they were trying to say to her. Kiba clucked his tongue and rolled his eyes, "I called him because I saw him earlier that night with Hinata -"

"- when we went to get you guys the ice cream -" Sasuke added helpfully.

"- and they were _dancing_, and I wanted to ask him what the fuck his problem is because he knows I like her. That's how I learned about you guys getting baked," Sasuke winked at Sakura without Kiba seeing. Sakura held in her excitement for their shy girlfriend. "And -"

"Anyway, go on!" Sakura interrupted, shooing away the conversation about the phone call so he could continue the story of Naruto's rage.

"Anyway," Kiba groaned dramatically, "I went along with the conversation as if I was oblivious and then I suddenly was in this huge fight with Naruto! We were insulting each other and he didn't really seem to be taking it to heart so I started insulting Sasuke instead and..."

The burnette obviously wanted to leave out the details of the conversation for the sake of someone. Whether it was Naruto or Sasuke, Sakura didn't know. "Long story short," he concluded, "I basically said I fuck Sasuke up the butt any time I want and that I was leaving to go do it right now!" Sasuke's eyes grew bigger with every word that Kiba vomitted and Sakura exploded upon impact.

"WHAT!" She screeched.

Sasuke's face started inflating, his cheeks puffing out as he tried to contain his rage.

"And you came here anyway?!" Sakura was nearly pulling her hair out, "I thought you said you don't bottom!" She looked at Sasuke, who became an exploding tag.

"I DON'T THIS FUCKING IDIOT IS LYING I'M GONNA KILL HIM!" Sasuke shrilled without any pauses before viciously tackling Kiba to the ground in the cramped hallway. There was a struggle and Akamaru was beside himself. His partner was in danger, but his partner deserved it.

"Ah, no!" Kiba wailed, honestly sounding like he was crying from the sheer terror that was Uchiha Sasuke. "He's going to rape me!"

"NO YOU'D LIKE THAT YOU FUCKING FAGGOT I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME LIKE THAT!" He began choking the life out of the Inuzuka. "HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT TO _NARUTO_, of all people...!" Sasuke's voice began to waver as he slowly stopped his assault and slumped on top of Kiba.

The burnette quickly wrapped his arms and legs around the Uchiha like a koala and he squeezed his eyes shut as he screamed how sorry he was and that he was just a complete idiot.

New and Youthful Sasuke understood that sometimes people did stupid things when they were angry. He knew this from past experiences. He sighed, allowing Kiba to cling to him like a body pillow.

"I've got you," He grumbled into his shoulder.

Sakura would've laughed at how ridiculous they looked if she wasn't trying so hard to process what had just happened. Sasuke had been a friend to someone other than Naruto or herself. Sasuke was looking out for Kiba even though he had gotten the Uchiha mad. That's what friends did. Eventually a smile broke out on her face.

When the two stood up, Sakura was going to suggest celebrating this moment of friendship when suddenly, the door slammed open and Kiba screamed like a woman.

Naruto.

His eyes were red and he was aflame, the truth-seeking balls floating behind him and waiting on his command. He was in complete sage mode, fury focused entirely on the guilty burnette shaking where he stood.

Sakura felt a cold sweat on the back of her neck and Sasuke immediately sent himself barreling into Naruto in order to prevent him from attacking. The force of their bodies meeting sent a rush of air into the house, blowing the curtains around and shaking the furniture.

"Naruto, dobe, stop!" Sasuke struggled to hold him back.

"No! I'll kill him! You didn't hear what he said about you!"

"The idiot was lying, he was just mad at you!"

"I don't care!" Naruto wasn't seeing clearly. Sasuke managed to shove him back a little so that they could look at each other.

It was strange to see the blond lit up with his chakra without his usual sweater to decorate the flames. It was just his skin heated up since he was only wearing a tank top. Sasuke touched his glowing shoulder with curiosity.

The soft gesture distracted Naruto and he looked at the Uchiha, noticing that he was still wearing his sweater. He stopped struggling and thought about the situation a little.

Sometimes he said some pretty nasty things when he was angry, things he usually didn't mean. The argument between him and Kiba was getting pretty heated by that point, so it was no wonder the burnette had just ended it with such insulting claims and comments.

Naruto's shoulders slumped as he returned to his normal appearance, deciding not to push Sasuke away from him because he was not bothered by his touching.

"I get it, Kiba," he sighed, his lips quirking as he tried to smile off the situation. The burnette waved him off, all hard feelings flying off the palm of his hand and straight out the door. Naruto cupped Sasuke's neck and face, gently pushing him off and turning towards his own home. "I'm gonna go shower for the party."

"You can shower here, you still have clothes in my closet, you know," Sasuke shrugged nonchalantly. He didn't mention the sweater he was wearing. It was his now.

Naruto smiled and nodded, walking past everyone towards the bathroom on the other side of the house.

The other three went into the kitchen and sat at the table having pleasant conversation until Lee showed up. Then it became some kind of competition on who could annoy Sakura the most, Sasuke and Kiba winning by making the blowjob motion while pointing at each other.

"I don't understand what you're saying so stop it!" Sakura yelled in frustration before attempting to punch them.

They dodged easily and laughed just as Naruto entered the kitchen. The table occupants greeted him enthusiastically and the five of them sat together and decided to take a few shots before the guests arrived. Sakura took out the small glasses and the tequila, suddenly feeling excited for the promising party.

Once all of the shots were filled, the five adults out of many that had been together through the academy - through painful pasts and tough training, through the biggest war in shinobi history - all raised their glasses and cheered.

"YOUTH!"

"Y-Youth!" Sasuke attempted to sound enthusiastic.

Naruto, Kiba and Saskura all choked on their shots from laughing so hard.

* * *

The house was louder than when he had Yamato help build certain parts of it from the ground with his loud wood-technique jutsu.

The beat of the music was overpowering the melody itself, the tune lost within the crowd. The only indication of what the lyrics said was Sakura and Kakashi bellowing the rap with their arms around each other. They weren't meant to be rappers, Sasuke concluded drunkenly, as he continued his search for his blond.

They had been sitting together and needed more drinks, so Sasuke had volunteered to head into the kitchen and get more.

So many things had happened in that small journey: Hinata had jumped on him drunkenly and he twirled her around before handing her off to Kiba who kissed him on the cheek in appreciation. Ino had made him taste her drink as he reprimanded her for telling Naruto about his slumber party secrets.

Shikamaru and Temari had asked him to help settle a drunken argument between the two, which he fixed by hugging them both and congratulating them on their engagement. Yamato had demanded a staring contest between the two and Chouji had made Sasuke lose by shoving shrimp tempura in his mouth. Sai had bothered him about his penis and demanded he see it up close and personal.

Kurenai pulled him to the side to complain about her mother and how she spoiled her daughter. Iruka hugged and petted him a little. Shino confronted him about the lie about them having sex. Karin invited him to dance and he couldn't say no. Suigetsu had tried to dance with her and he had tried to punch him in the face. Juugo hugged him and wouldn't let go.

Gaara and Kankuro tried getting him to play this weird hand-clapping game they had made up in their drunken stupor, but he was quickly eliminated because "one-armed people can't play right". Sakura and Kakashi had started rapping in his face.

He was finally back at Naruto's side, sitting on the arm of the armchair the blond was sitting in. He handed him his drink and stared as Naruto chugged it, sweat glistening on his neck. Sasuke never admitted it, but he loved how sweaty Naruto always was. It gave him this musky scent that was very manly, and drove Sasuke crazy. He just wanted to lick it off...

He was drunk enough.

Naruto snorted, almost spitting out his drink as he felt Sasuke's tongue on his neck. He put his cup down and turned to the Uchiha wrapping his arms around him, "You're so fuckin' weird.." he laughed, pulling the raven messily onto his lap.

Sasuke laughed too and returned the embrace, their noses brushing against each other's as their throats rumbled in amusement. They stared at one another for a brief moment before leaning in...

... and then pulling apart as they belted out the next set of lyrics to the song Kakashi and Sakura were singing to.

Then they were up and dancing with everyone else, screaming every song they knew and losing their voices in the crowd. At one point Naruto had taken Sasuke to the kitchen where they made new drinks and he searched the cabinets for ramen, completely forgetting that Sasuke actually lived in an apartment still. Basic conversation eventually lead to their usual banter, and then an actual fight broke out. Of all the things they could've started arguing about, it had to be Naruto's favorite food.

"You know I don't hate it!"

"How can you hate my favorite food, I thought we were friends!"

"It's not healthy, I can't stand how you eat it all the time! You'll die from the excessive amounts of sodium in your system!"

"You hate me! You hate ramen!"

"I don't hate ramen!" Sasuke bellowed dramatically.

"Then eat it for breakfast with me!"

"What?" Sasuke's brows furrowed before he squeezed his eyes shut incredulously, "No!"

Naruto suddenly was quiet, his face not at all betraying the emotions behind it, "You've never had ramen for breakfast?"

"No, that's disgusting."

"Have breakfast with me, and we'll eat ramen."

"No!"

"Have breakfast with me."

Sasuke stared for a very long time before smiling.

"Okay."

After what felt like hours, the party started to calm down. People were getting tired and some were already passed out in random places throughout the house. There were a few that were okay enough to head home on their own, and their goodbyes were slow and lingering.

Lee was passed out comfortably on the couch and Sakura reached for him as Kakashi carried her away over his shoulder. She wondered what Naruto and Sasuke had talked about in the kitchen when she saw them head in earlier, but they had never come back out and so she never got to ask.

She turned and demanded her sensei carry her like a princess and so Kakashi shifted her until she was resting bridal style in his arms. He had stumbled significantly in his drunken stupor, but Sakura hadn't noticed.

"I didn't get to say goodbye to Naruto and Sasuke - or Sai..."

"Sai was passed out in Sasuke's bed along with Ino and Kurenai."

"Unnn..." She sighed, upset at having missed her opportunity to say goodnight. "What about Naruto and Sasuke..? Did they come out of the kitchen?"

Kakashi snorted, "A while ago. They left in search of ramen."

Sakura proceeded to laugh and then pass out.

* * *

The sunlight was almost too much to bear. When she had first gotten the apartment with Lee, Sakura had loved how the sunrise always shined through the windows and throughout the kitchen and living room, but now all she wanted to do was board up those stupid windows and isolate herself in darkness.

This hangover wasn't as bad as some others had been, but it certainly did not matter. Even the one hundreth hangover was just as fresh as the first, and so Sakura was tortured. The coffee pot made a mocking sound as it brewed a remedy at an agonizingly slow pace.

All she wanted was her fucking coffee. The bubbling sound of the pot boiling, the small hint of steam rising, the slow drip, drip, drip of the finished product; all of these teased her with malicious intent.

_Just think of something else_, she thought to herself, _just think of the beach. Think of the ocean and the sea salt that you can smell through your nose. The nice heat of the sun warming the sand. The waves reaching towards you and foaming like the top of a cappuccino -_

"Damnit!" she hissed, slamming her hand on a nearby counter.

Looking towards the pot, she saw that it wasn't even a quarter full. She groaned in agony and ruffled her hair, not caring at all how disheveled it probably made her look. _Try to think about the positive things about this morning._

Well, no one was really awake yet, which meant not many people were out and about and making lots of head-pounding noises.

She didn't feel nauseous, and that was indeed a plus.

Her sunglasses eased the pain of the bright morning lights and the smell of coffee was somewhat soothing when she forgot about the wait. Kakashi was still passed out on the couch, the blanket he had borrowed thrown halfway across the room. Sakura supposed she could survive this morning peacefully.

Those thoughts when to shit when there was a knock on her front door.

"Who the fuck...?" She grumbled to herself as she tightened her robe and shuffled towards the white entrance to her apartment.

Opening the door, she was met with a smug-looking Sasuke, who had sunglasses placed on the top of his head. What was his deal? It was ass o'clock in the morning and he comes banging on her door and making her let the sun in while he stands there looking like he was the king of the world? While Sakura looked even pitiable to Death? Nothing was right about this image.

"What do you want?"

Sasuke looked up at something interesting in the sky as he leaned against the doorframe. He was carrying a to-go bag from Ichiraku's. "Oh, nothing. Just wanted to see how your morning was going," he put the bag down and looked at an invisible watch on his wrist, "You should be getting a phone call-" the phone began ringing, "-now."

Sakura raised an eyebrow and walked over to her phone's base, picking up the telephone and clicking the green 'talk' button. Upon bringing it to her ear and muttering a small 'hello', her eardrum exploded with the excitement that came shooting out of Uzumaki Karin's mouth and into the receiver.

"Oh my gosh, Sakura! You won't believe what I accidentally walked in on last night!" Sakura's eyes widened, "Naruto and Sasuke were -" Sakura's jaw dropped as she heard the very detailed explanation on what had gone on in Naruto's room - in Naruto's _bed_ \- only hours ago.

Suddenly, Kakashi was at her side, grabbing the phone away from her and demanding the detailed explanation to be repeated. Sasuke smirked at her and put the sunglasses down on his face dramatically.

"This farce is over."

He turned and began walking away, not at all embarrassed about his 'limp of shame'.

"Ah.." Sakura couldn't bring herself to say a single word about what she'd just learned.

Wait,_ this farce is over?_ Right. Sasuke could no longer be blackmailed about his love interest.

Sakura could no longer force Sasuke into girly outings or dinner dates. He couldn't be frightened into slumber parties or pedicures. There would be no more forced trips to the beach, no more drug-induced truth or dare games, no more shopping or cooking or dancing. Sasuke no longer had to be her gay friend. He could be whatever he wanted.

_Naruto's boyfriend_, she supposed. The pink-haired kunoichi began to deflate. This ending was bittersweet.

"The sale on sandals is going to end today, so I'll come pick you up later," Sasuke called from down the street.

Sakura stood frozen for a second before replying, "O-oh! Okay, I'll be - I'll be ready!"

Sasuke nodded, and she smiled back before heading into her apartment to change her clothes, coffee completely forgotten.


End file.
